Bear Lake High senior a leader on the softball field with aspirations of being a therapist
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MONTPELIER — Caylee Culver is a senior at Bear Lake High School. She is the catcher on the softball team and dreams of turning her love for art and personal understanding of art’s strength as a therapeutic tool into a career.
Culver said she has played softball “since I could walk” and plays, perhaps, its most physically and mentally demanding position — catcher. She said her relationship with the position is one of equal parts love and hate.
“I get to lead the whole team — I get to lead the whole field. Nobody else has that view,” she said. “I like being part of that team dynamic. I think that, when you’re involved with a team, you become friends with all those people — really close — and that’s really been awesome throughout my experience here.”
While starring on the diamond, Culver has also shined in the hallways, spending most of her high school career on the student council. She currently serves as the senior class vice-president where, she joked, “I basically do everything the president doesn’t do, which is a lot.”
Among her duties, Culver used her love for art to decorate the campus for homecoming this past fall — which she said took 42 hours.
“I get into it. It’s fun,” she said.
Art, she said, has been a tool for her for several years.
As a freshman, Culver was forced to deal with some personal and family-related struggles. She sought therapy, but classic counseling just didn’t work, she said — there was never any real connection.
“I used art as my therapy. That’s what got me out of it, and what continues to get me out of hard things, is drawing, and painting,” she said.
Culver has since decided to make a career of art-therapy.
She plans to attend the University of Wyoming — where her grandfather used to teach — and major in psychology with a minor in art. One day, she hopes she will be able to teach others to deal with trauma through art — or even evaluate others’ mental health by examining their art.
Softball, she added, may or may not play a role in the next chapter of her life.
Wyoming has a club team she would be able to try out for, but knows a new school, new people and a new way of life will be demanding. However, she acknowledges that the comfort of keeping connection with something she has done for 12-plus years could provide a bit of stability.
“I might try to do (play softball for the college club team), I’m not entirely sure yet — that’s a big commitment for my freshman year,” she said.
When she leave Montpelier for Laramie, Culver said the toughest thing will be saying goodbye to the 80 or so people she has called classmates and friends for 13 years — especially knowing she may never see some of them again.
Specifically, bidding farewell to her six fellow seniors on the softball team — which whom she has competed for most of her life — will be difficult.
“It’s crazy it’s going to be our last time (playing together). It’s still doesn’t feel real to me.”